


therein lies the heart

by aizensosuke



Category: Bleach
Genre: Cat/Human Hybrids, Developing Relationship, F/M, Friendship, Hybrids, Meet-Cute, Pining, Shapeshifting, Strangers to Lovers, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2019-11-08 20:32:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17988065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aizensosuke/pseuds/aizensosuke
Summary: orihime brings a cat in out of the rain and finds out the hard way that bringing home stray cats is a bad idea. sosuke had long since given up on being able to trust anyone when a human woman with a heart of gold rescued him from the cold.





	1. Chapter 1

When Inoue Orihime finally steps out of the warm interior of the corner store and into the chilly autumn evening, all she wants is to catch her bus ride home.

The day was a miserable one to put it lightly, though most days tend to be when her store needs about two more employees and relies on less than the bare minimum to squeak through each day. Her manager asks her at least twice a week why there is still stock in the back that has yet to be placed on the shelves and it takes all of her willpower not to kindly remind him that the one stocker they have only works half a shift on average since said manager is stingy about handing out hours despite clearly having room for them.

They make money. The store is conveniently placed in the city, at the heart of a section containing several apartment buildings, and they carry just enough in the way of grocery items that for plenty of college students living on their own as well as single mothers, it is a preferable place to shop. If they employed enough people, it might almost be a pleasant experience to work there given how the store itself is not too large. But darting back and forth between trying to finish the stocking and being behind the register when she is needed leaves her exhausted every day.

She needs the job to support herself and pay the half of her rent not covered by her older brother. As long as she has a job and applies herself, Sora is happy to help her, and she doesn’t know what she would do without him considering the idea of holding down a second job on top of the one she already has makes her sick with anxiety.

College is a distant dream at this point even though she knows she should have applied right out of high school, but she can at least justify not going by honestly reminding herself that work is so stressful and she sleeps so often when not there that she would not be able to fit in a single class. On top of that, once the holiday seasons start up, she has to be available more often and deal with more customers, a time of year she dreads now instead of looking forward to like the average person does.

When she drops down on the bench to wait for her bus, a soft sigh leaves her lips and she tilts her head back, letting the cool evening air whip her hair around her face. The sky overhead is a gunmetal grey and threatening rain; she dully remembers hearing it on the forecast this morning when she was preparing for her day and slipped her raincoat over her uniform as she was heading out the door. At this rate, she might get home without needing to use it which would be the only positive thing that’s happened to her today.

 _I always thought customers were the worst part of working any kind of retail job,_ she thinks, rubbing sleep out of her eyes. If she naps on the bench, she _will_ miss her bus. _Instead, it’s the manager. The one person who should_ want _to do a good job._

Most of her customers are actually quite kind when they realize she earnestly wants to do well at her job, doing her best to help them if she can. When she has to turn them away because her store doesn’t happen to carry a product they want, she always tries to recommend somewhere nearby that does because it means the customer might come back for other items in the future. She really does her best. Just… No one who has an impact on her job seems to give a damn. Her manager only talks to her to complain.

When something brushes against her leg, Orihime lets out a little scream and jumps, yanking her legs up onto the bench, smashing them against her chest as she looks down. What was that? _Trash, probably, it’s so windy._ Or was there someone _under_ the bench, perhaps some kind of pervert who might scope out women’s legs from below? She feels like a fool for not stopping to check before she sat down.

A pair of bright green eyes peer up at her through the slats in the wood.

“Oh.” Orihime sighs at herself, setting her feet carefully down on the pavement, glancing around to make sure no one noticed her little outburst. “It’s just a cat, stupid.”

Stray cats are common enough in the city, she knows. People lose their pets all the time because they leave their doors open or the animals dart out between their legs, or they find ways to sneak out, like through open windows. Some people even throw their animals out when they decide they no longer want to care for them. It isn’t new.

The sky overhead crackles with thunder and a drop of rain splatters on her nose.

“Of course.” She lifts her hood and zips up the front of her jacket, hoping the bus comes soon so she doesn’t have to let herself get soaked from the waist down.

Her phone vibrates and she checks the screen, breathing out a sigh of relief to see it’s a message from her best friend. _Did you manage to survive another day in hell?_

 _It’s taking all my power to survive an hour at this point,_ she types back, swiping away another raindrop when it lands on the screen of her phone. _How was your day, Berry?_

Considering he spends roughly half of his life glued to his phone even on the job itself— his manager doesn’t seem to mind even though Orihime’s would filet her alive if he caught her on her phone on the clock— Ichigo texts back almost immediately. _Amazing. I have a date tonight, I’ll let you know how it goes. Gonna be my backup just in case?_

Ah, of course. _You know I will. Just text me the address so I can call the police._

When she and Ichigo met in high school, they were good friends who only grew closer as the years went by, though nothing ever came of it. Sometime after going to university, he came out to her, and she supported him through it because she knew it could be difficult to be publicly out. When Ichigo has a date, she functions as his silent alarm; he texts her addresses and locations of where he’s going to be and updates her throughout the night with the understanding that if he doesn’t text at all, she calls the police.

It might seem ridiculous to some people, but they both know better.

 _You’re an angel. I’ll text you when I get home._ What follows is an obscene amount of heart emojis and Orihime rolls her eyes fondly as she pockets her phone.

The rain slowly picks up the longer she waits for the bus and she sighs, pulling her hood further over on top of her head to shield her face from the rain as best she can. The bus she takes home comes about twenty minutes after the end of her shift, giving her plenty of time to be absolutely drenched by the time she gets home. If the walk was shorter, she would just go on foot, but it isn’t worth it and really, it’s too late now. Her feet are killing her and she’d rather be wet but sitting than wet and walking.

Beneath the bench, a pitiful little meow sounds out, and she startles at it.

 _The cat,_ she reminds herself, glancing down to see what vaguely looks like a curled-up ball of fur beneath the wood. Does the animal have nowhere else to stay during the downpour?

Cats are smart creatures, she reasons. It will find a place to stay before long.

When she gets home, she needs to change out of her wet clothes, take a shower, and force herself to eat something before she inevitably crashes for the night. At least today is Friday, which means she has the weekend off. Her manager had not been happy about that one, but considering she needs to have time off or the business itself risks running into issues, he finally budged and let her have Saturday and Sunday off.

 _Won’t kill him to work the weekend shifts anyway, it’s just two days,_ she thinks.

Another pitiful meow draws her attention and she shifts, leaning down to peer between the wooden slats once more to see the cat curled into an impossibly tight ball, shivering as the rain drips through the bench and wets its fur. Those bright green eyes peer up at her again, impossibly intelligent, and then the cat mewls plaintively at her, as if asking her for help. The sound tugs at her heartstrings; she had always been a friend to animals.

“I’m sorry kitty,” she murmurs, slipping her fingers through the gap in the wood. “If I could take you somewhere, I would, but the shelter’s even further away than my place.”

And there was no guarantee the cat wouldn’t just be put down if it wasn’t adopted. Unfortunately, it looks like a full grown cat, and most people want kittens to raise on their own, small and cute ones that stumble around on paws too big for them and need to be taught to use the litter box still. No one wants a fully grown cat.

Slowly, the cat uncurls itself from its little ball and stretches up toward her fingers, cold and wet nose nudging against her gently. She smiles sadly and tilts her hand, running the pad of her finger along the bridge of its nose, watching its eyes flutter shut.

She had pets as a child but was unable to justify adopting one as an adult; adoption fees were often high and the idea of feeding and caring for an animal were just expenses not currently in her budget. Besides, it seemed unfair to adopt an animal only to have to disappear to go to work and then come home and sleep so much.

The cat meows pitifully up at her once more, pushing its nose up against her fingers.

After checking to make sure her bus is absolutely not on the way yet, Orihime slides off the bench, crouching down beside the bench so she can look under it. The cat is certainly full grown, all long brown tabby-patterned fur. Quietly, she clicks her tongue against the roof of her mouth, curling her fingers before offering the cat her hand. If it refuses to come out, so be it. Stray cats don’t tend to be as friendly as people think they are.

Instead of walking up to her right away, the cat observes her for a moment, ears twitching toward the sound of her clicks until it slowly pads over to her. Its nose is wet with rain water now as it sniffs at her fingers and she giggles softly at how gently it tickles. When the cat finally rubs its cheek against her hand and pads further into the opening, she lets herself smooth a hand down its back, noticing how thin it is. Not dangerously, but still.

As if sensing her distress, the cat rubs itself up against her shins, rubbing its cheek against her knee and meowing up at her in greeting. The rain comes down harder and the cat huddles against her legs, a pitiful mewl leaving its lips when thunder rumbles in the distance, peeking up at her as if asking her to protect it.

“I’m sorry.” She rubs a soothing hand along its side. “I can’t do anything about the storm. Why don’t you get somewhere safe until it’s over, though? It’ll be over soon.”

The cat rubs against her legs harder, meowing up at her. As if trying to tell her something, though she’s not sure she can understand what it means. When she moves to sit back on the bench, the cat hops up onto it with her, settings its forepaws on her leg.

“Honey, no.” She scratches beneath its chin, listening to the noise it makes when it purrs before the cat clambers up into her lap. “I can’t take you home with me.”

_You probably have fleas, anyway, and I’m sorry, but I couldn’t afford an exterminator._

Lightning flashes and the cat darts beneath the bench immediately; Orihime leans over to see it huddling beneath the slats once more, curled up into a little ball again.

No wonder it hasn’t found a safe place to ride out the storm of it’s this afraid of thunder and lightning. Sighing, she shoves her hair back into her hood and glances down the street once more, just picking out the shape of her bus in the rainy distance.

 _Don’t do it,_ she tells herself even as she slides off the bench. _Don’t you dare do it._

“Come here kitty,” she murmurs, holding out her arms. “Come here to me. It’s okay.”

With as limited time as she has, the cat seems determined to make this a last second accomplishment. It pads to her in slow steps, small and uncertain, looking at her like it isn’t quite sure of her even though it had been in her lap just a moment ago. When the cat is finally in reach, Orihime unzips her jacket and picks it up, tucking it in against her chest and zipping her jacket back up. The bus doesn’t allow pets, after all.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers when the cat meows up at her, green eyes visible in the shadow inside her jacket. “Please be quiet or you can’t be on the bus with me.”

To her surprise, the cat falls quiet. Then, it rubs its cheek against her chest and purrs quietly, a tiny little rumble that makes her heart flutter stupidly. That’s fine, she supposes, because only an idiot would pick a cat off a street like this and take it home.

She pays her bus fare and the exhausted driver seems not to notice the shape of the cat bulging at the front of her jacket, so she considers that a win and takes a seat at the back of the bus to draw as little attention to herself as possible. With her height, she just manages to slouch down enough to not be so visible in the mirror and sneaks a hand inside of her jacket, stroking the cat’s soft head as gently as she can. When a tiny sandpaper tongue rasps against her fingers, she decides this is a good deed after all.

 _I have canned tuna and salmon in the house,_ she thinks to herself, rubbing the space between the cat’s ears. _Cats drink milk or water. That should get me through one night until I can buy actual cat food. I wonder if I could get Tatsuki to bring me a litter box when she gets off work in a few hours. She has a discount at her own store anyway._

The cat mewls softly at her and Orihime smiles softly down at its eyes, its pink nose.

It must finally be her lucky day because the bus driver doesn’t notice when she steps off of the bus either, and by the time she makes it up to her apartment, no one has noticed at all. Carefully, she unzips her jacket, making sure not to snag any fur in the process, and picks the cat out so she can set it down on the floor. While she kicks off her boots and hangs her jacket up, the cat shakes its little body out and then looks up at her.

“Well,” she says, “welcome home? For as long as you want to stay, that is. I’m Orihime.”

The cat meows up at her and she grins, delighted, as she bends down to stroke it from head to tail. When it turns around to sniff at her boots, she realizes it’s a boy cat and realizes she had risked a lot to bring a tomcat into her apartment.

“You could have scratched me up real bad, you know that? You had the perfect position, so thank you for not doing that.” She smiles when the cat rubs up against her legs. “Thank you. Here, let’s see if we can get you dried off. I just need to change first.”

She stripes her wet jeans off right there in the entranceway since she doesn’t have to worry about anyone walking in on her, peeling off her damp socks, wadding it all up for the laundry basket. Her uniform shirt ends up in the laundry basket with the pants and she lets out a little groan of relief when she finally unfastens her bra for the day. The damned underwire can be a pain even though she needs the extra support.

After changing into a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt and texting Tatsuki, promising to pay her back for the litter and the box as soon as she brings it, Orihime picks the cat up off of the floor. He purrs as soon as she shifts to hold him against her chest, one small paw kneading at her forearm gently. When has a tomcat ever been so sweet before?

“Poor baby. I bet you were someone’s pet and you got out. Or maybe they threw you out. I haven’t seen any signs up with your face on them.” Orihime carries the cat to the bathroom, pausing when she feels something wet on her hand.

Carefully, she sets the cat on the sink and checks her hand, gasping softly when she sees a telltale smear of red on her fingers. “Oh, baby, you’re hurt! Where is it, lemme see…”

With careful fingers, she finds the wound on the cat’s foreleg and smoothes her hand down his back to reassure him as she tries to clumsily clean the wound. It looks like just a scratch but it still worries her, and the cat whimpers a little and tries to take his paw back while she works on him. Through some miracle, she manages to get a little bit of gauze wrapped around his leg. It’s going to have to do for now.

“I’m sorry you got hurt.” She kisses the cat on the top of the head, laughing when he meows up at her again. “Come on, let’s get you dried off and then I’ll get you food.”

She picks a towel out from her rack and an old hairbrush she doesn’t use anymore, carrying it all to the living room with her so she can turn on something while she works. The show mostly just plays in the background while she carefully dries off each part of the cat, careful of his wounded leg and looking diligently for other wounds. When she’s satisfied she’s wrung as much water from his fur as possible, she sets him on her lap and starts brushing him, careful not to press down too hard and risk hurting him.

Taking care of an animal is a soothing act at least, and she feels better when the cat goes all but boneless on her lap, purring deeply as she smoothes the brush through his fur. Despite the fact he’s been living on the street, his fur is surprisingly soft and silky beneath the brush, and she runs her fingers through it unable to help herself. When she stops, he yowls at her and rolls over, batting at her hand with one paw. Demanding.

“Okay, okay. Pushy little kitten.” Orihime scratches beneath his chin, listening to him purr for her. “Well, I’ll have to come up with a name for you if you end up staying. Maybe later, though, my brain is fried. Just know it doesn’t mean I don’t care about you.”

The tiny licks to her fingers make her think she might be forgiven.

When her stomach gurgles impatiently, reminding her that she skipped lunch _again_ to get through work, she picks the cat up and carries him to the kitchen with her. A can of tuna goes down on a plate for him alongside a dish of water, and she just sets them on the counter while she makes herself some fried rice with what she didn’t eat at breakfast. The cat makes funny little noises while he eats, and it makes her smile.

Her phone vibrates, a message from Tatsuki. _What do you need a litter box for?_

 _I picked a cat up off the street. You don’t have to lecture me. I already know. At least he doesn’t have fleas. I checked._ Well, not in so many words, but she _had_ brushed him for quite a long time and imagines she would have found fleas by that point.

 _I’m not going to lecture you,_ Tatsuki reassures her, which is why she’s Orihime’s oldest and most beloved friend in the whole world. _I’ll bring you litter liners and stuff too. Don’t worry about paying me back. Just send me kitty pictures for payment._

 _Are you sure? I know pet stuff isn’t cheap._ Just because Sora paid for most of it doesn’t mean Orihime never saw a receipt or two and had her life flash before her eyes.

 _I’m totally sure. Besides, that discount._ The winking emoji seals the deal.

“You wanna pose for your photo op?” Orihime asks the cat, who looks up at her as she opens her camera app. “Look up at the camera now, pretty baby. Look at me.”

The cat swishes his tail at her and goes back to eating, but that’s fine. She figures a picture of a cat eating is better, then has a brilliant idea and takes a video instead, picking up the cute little noises he makes around licks and nibbles of food. Then she sends it to Tatsuki, making a note to take lots of sleeping kitty cat pictures too.

She eats standing at the counter and finishes around the time the cat does, which is good timing as far as she’s concerned. After setting everything in the sink, too tired to think about messing with the dishwasher right now, she heads for the living room and the cat hops down from the counter to follow her, threading between her legs as she walks. He’s certainly affectionate, which is a nice change. She’s used to being home alone.

“Nap time,” she tells him, tossing a couch throw pillow against the arm. “I can’t go to bed until Tatsuki gets off work, but no one ever said I couldn’t have a nap, right?”

The cat only purrs and rubs against her leg, stretching up on his toes.

After texting Tatsuki to let her know to call after work so the ringtone will wake Orihime from her nap, she lays down on the couch, sighing as she sinks down into the cushions. While it isn’t the nicest couch in the world, it does an excellent job serving as the place she likes to take her naps since her actual mattress tends to knock her into a sleep so deep it may as well count as a coma. The cat watches her from the floor, then leaps onto the couch with her, tiny paws pressing down on her leg.

“You wanna nap, too?” she asks, smiling when the cat carefully walks into her stomach and sits. “Well, to each their own. Just don’t knead me with your claws.”

The cat curls up on her stomach, tucking his nose into the fluff of his tail, and she runs her fingers through his fur as she pulls up her messages to see what she might have missed today. Ichigo has sent her three addresses for his date and she assures him she got all of them and will be waiting for his texts, laughing when Tatsuki sends her a string of emojis and babbling in keysmash format to the video. Uryu never answers but Chad texts her about ten minutes later to let her know he’s studying and will answer later.

 _What a cute couple,_ she thinks, scratching behind her cat’s ears. _I’m almost jealous of it._

It wasn’t as though she had time for a relationship, of course, given the fact she mostly just worked and slept and made time for things like showering and eating around those two very important things. She’ll have to make time to play with her cat, now, too, and to brush him and give him food and make sure he has everything he needs to be a happy cat. If he’s especially energetic, she’ll have to get him lots of toys, too. The cost will not be pretty.

But, well, judging from the way he purrs and rolls onto his back for her, exposing the extra soft fur of his belly, he must trust her to take good care of him. She can’t fuck it up.

At some point, Orihime finally dozes off. Her naps are always lighter than air but just enough to make her feel refreshed after one, so she figures that must be why she doesn’t feel the shift of weight on the couch until she opens her eyes to the sound of her phone ringing. She picks it up and promises Tatsuki she’s awake and will be waiting for her.

It’s only when she hangs up the phone that she realizes her legs are asleep.

Orihime sighs and rubs at her eyes, trying to sit up and frowning when something impedes her. A quick glance down to where her cat should be tells her _exactly_ why she can’t move, and why she can’t feel her legs. Her eyes widen, mouth falling open on a breathless gasp.

There is a naked man lying on top of her, his cheek resting on her stomach.

 _What the fuck?_ Orihime’s heart slams into her ribs so hard that she can feel it almost painfully, her arms trembling as they struggle to hold up her weight in the face of the fear that chokes her like a vice around her throat. Before she can summon the oxygen necessary to scream— she has to do _something_ even if screaming might get her in worse trouble— she realizes the man has a hand resting loosely on her abdomen.

Wound around the man’s wrist is a piece of gaze stained with dried blood.

 _No._ The word echoes through her head even as she blinks, forcing herself to take in the situation, to make sense of it. With careful fingers, she touches the gauze, remembering the texture of it against her own skin when she wound it around her cat’s leg.

The man shifts in his sleep and sighs softly, pressing his cheek down against her stomach, and— And one of the soft, furry brown ears on top of his head twitches. She stares at it for far too long before she touches it, tracing the edge of it down into the torrent of his long curly brown hair. When the base of it gives way to human skin, she yanks her hand back as if she’d been burned. So he’s not some kind of animal pervert. They’re… No. There is no fucking way a naked man lying on top of her has _real_ cat ears.

When she sees the fluffy tail curled around his bare thigh, her brain threatens to short circuit and leave her pinned beneath him on the couch for good.

 _Kick him,_ she thinks. _Yank a leg out from under him and kick him as hard as you can. In the face. Break his nose or something, it’ll slow him down. Can I hit his balls from here? Maybe the ears are sensitive and I can yank them really hard and get him off of me._

Tatsuki is coming soon, she reminds herself. Tatsuki knows martial arts— Orihime locked her apartment door, including the chain. Tatsuki can’t break through a steel door.

So she has to figure out how to escape from this on her own.

Before she can settle on anything, the man shifts on top of her, yawning loudly, exposing the abnormally sharp points of his canine teeth before his eyelashes flutter softly. He tilts his head up toward her, his eyes meeting hers before a slow, sleepy smile spreads across his lips, his cheek pressing down against her stomach again. _Rubbing_ against her, she realizes, much like a cat when they try to scent mark someone they love—

A cat? Orihime’s eyes widen and dart toward the bandage again, back to the ears, the tail. When the man makes a low mewling noise in the back of her throat, it makes sense. In that it makes _no_ sense and she must be dreaming. This is what she gets for thinking about a relationship right before taking a nap. Her cat turns into a naked man.

“Orihime,” he murmurs, and the low, velvety sound of his voice sends a shiver down her spine as she stares down at him, still shocked, still unsure what the hell she’s supposed to _do_ in a situation like this one. “What’s wrong? You smell so scared.”

“Um.” Orihime swallows hard, her legs twitching as the feeling slowly starts to creep back into them, a devastating pins and needles sensation. “Did you turn into a _person?_ ”

The man’s dark brown eyes blink a few times before widening and then he sits up suddenly, his tail twitching in front of him to cover him before she has a chance to hide her eyes. “Oh,” he says, looking down at his hands. “Oh, I hadn’t even realized. It’s been so long…”

“Who are you?” it seems like a fair question, all things considered.

“Aizen Sosuke.” The man stares at his hands for a moment longer before he smiles at her and despite the absolute strangeness of the situation, the expression makes some very small part of her soften a little, melt a little. “I believe you took me out from under a bench and brought me back to your apartment this afternoon.”

“Right, I—” And before she can finish, the man— Aizen Sosuke— is on top of her, his arms wrapped around her back as he rubs his cheek against her stomach and _purrs._

Against her better judgement, all she can think to do is pat him between the ears and wait for Tatsuki to show up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i was trying SO HARD to be good and not start another story and then Lull and Wolfie enabled me and here we are. i know some of you are probably like "what the hell is this aihime bullshit" but listen: it's gonna be SO. CUTE. i promise you. another hybrid au but this is more like my old style that none of you have seen where they can turn into little fluffy animals. rating also subject to change knowing me lmao.


	2. Chapter 2

When Orihime asks Sosuke to please make room on the couch for Tatsuki to sit down, she does not mean for him to kneel behind her on the couch with his chest plastered against her back and his chin resting on top of her head. That being said, it should probably not surprise her he does exactly this given that he is, despite all appearances, a cat.

“Um.” Tatsuki hovers by the end of the couch with the open seat, her eyes darting around wildly as if there is no safe place for them to settle. “Should I just leave this and go?”

Orihime smiles at her, but the expression feels too big and strained all at the same time, and she is certain her eyes must be screaming her distress. “No, you can sit own.”

“There’s a naked man wrapped around you and— Orihime, I’m…” Tatsuki sets the litter pan, the litter, and a white plastic bag all on the ground, then presses her hands together in front of her mouth, her expression  _ begging _ Orihime to understand her. “I’m not going to judge you of course, you’re a single woman and you can do whatever you want to do. But I didn’t realize you were, ah, how should I say this? I didn’t realize you were a furry.”   


“I’m not!” Orihime groans and smacks her hands over her face, startled when Sosuke hugs her from behind, scrubbing his cheek against her head. “Sosuke, stop that, I’m fine.”

“You’re upset,” he says, his voice soft and cajoling like he’s trying to take care of her.

Tatsuki refuses to sit down on the couch and really, Orihime cannot blame her for instead deciding to sit in the one empty chair. The other is loaded down with laundry that Orihime just hasn’t gotten around to folding and putting away yet. “So that cat—”

“Is him,” Orihime interrupts, pointing to Sosuke, who lifts a hand and waves to Tatsuki in greeting. At this close angle, she can see that his fingernails are about as long as hers.  _ Claws? _ “I know it sounds insane but the ears and the tail are connected to him.”

“People don’t have cat ears and cat tails. I mean, I’m sure they’re very realistic, but…” Tatsuki trails off, dark eyes darting down toward the ground like she feels bad for pointing out what should be objective facts. Except, of course, in the case of the man whose body heat is soaking through Orihime’s shirt, he’s so close to her.  _ That’s so nice. _

Sighing, Orihime stares down at the screen of her phone, sending off a text message to Ichigo to ensure his date hasn’t attempted to kill him and hide the body, before looking up at her childhood best friend once more. “Do you think I would be lying about this? I sent you a video of a cat. So where’s the cat? Wouldn’t it have come out to see you by now?”

“It could have been your neighbor’s cat or something. Maybe.” Tatsuki eyes Sosuke again, but he only mewls softly, his arms tightening around Orihime’s waist. “I just don’t—”

“Then touch his ears and tail and see for yourself when they move,” Orihime tells her, and Tatsuki’s face flames instantly. “What? If you’re so certain that they aren’t real and they’re just realistic props, then you should be able to touch them to see that.”

“I mean… He’s  _ naked, _ ” Tatsuki reminds her, as if Orihime would not realize this herself.

However, this time she can win on a technicality. “No, he’s wearing the blanket from the back of my couch. It’s not like I have anything that fits him. Go ahead, come see.”

“I don’t bite,” Sosuke informs her in that voice that is far too deep and pleasant.

“Look.” Orihime stretches a hand up, encountering the wealth of Sosuke’s soft curly hair before she manages to locate one of his fluffy ears, stroking the long soft fur on the back of it, shuddering all over when he purrs against her back, a rumbling sort of sound. “See? Completely harmless. Come check. You can feel where they go into his scalp.”

Finally, but still looking completely torn, Tatsuki forces herself to her feet and trudges over, stretching out a hand toward Sosuke’s head only to immediately retract it when he tilts his head toward her. For a moment, Orihime thinks she might back down. Tatsuki is one of the most fearless people she knows and it would absolutely boggle her mind if her friend backed down from a challenge as simple as petting one of the ears of the man wrapped around her. It’s not like Orihime is asking her to  _ pet _ him or anything.

“Okay.” Tatsuki takes a step closer, and the moment her fingers touch Sosuke’s ear, he mewls softly. “I mean, it kind of feels like— It just moved. Do fake ears move?”

“He doesn’t have fake ears,” Orihime patiently tells her for at least the fifth time.

Tatsuki makes a face at her and then that face slowly scrunches up, her nose wrinkled and her brows furrowed, before she yanks her hand back. “Holy shit. His ears are real.”

“Are they?” Orihime asks her, winging her brows up as dramatically as she can. “I didn’t realize that. I mean, I haven’t been sitting here telling you that his ears are real—”

“What did you expect me to think? You told me you brought a cat home. I mean, dumb, but like, whatever, people do that.” Tatsuki hurries back to her seat, as if not wanting to be any closer to the anomaly than she has to be. “And you sent me a video and it was  _ cute— _ ”

Sosuke leans over her so he can look at her. “You sent her a video of me?”

“You were eating,” Orihime confirms, and Sosuke looks thoughtful before he disappears to settle in against her once more. “Yes, I sent you a video of him eating fish. And he was still a cat then. I don’t know why he isn’t still a cat now. Sosuke, why are you a person?”

“I’m not a person. I’m still a cat.” As if to prove his point, Sosuke drags his tongue up the side of her neck and she yelps. It’s not  _ as _ rough as a cat’s tongue, but still strange.

Immediately, Tatuski points a finger at him. “No you’re not. You’re a person.”

“Do people have cat’s ears on top of their head and tails to go with them?” Sosuke asks her, his voice astoundingly patient, and Orihime has to shove her fist into her mouth to muffle the choked laugh that leaves her throat. “I am not a person. I am a cat. You touched my ear. You’ve heard me meow. You know I’m not a person.”

Tatsuki scowls at him. “Well, you look like one. Why do you  _ look _ like a person right now?”

“I assume because Orihime was kind to me. I haven’t taken this shape in a very long time. As you can imagine, strangers on the street would notice right away if I walked by looking like this.” Sosuke folds himself tighter around her and purrs softly, and distantly Orihime remembers bringing him home on the bus tucked into her jacket. Had he felt like this, then? Wrapped up and safe and warm? “No one suspects a cat, though.”

“You assume… Did you not  _ choose _ to turn back? Can you even choose?” Tatsuki asks.

These are all very good questions, Orihime thinks. It’s a pity  _ she _ didn’t think of them.

Sosuke nods, and she can feel his tail tickling her arm as it flips around. “Yes, I can choose to change forms. But I woke up like this, so I obviously didn’t make the choice. I’m sorry for startling you, Orihime, but I wouldn’t have chosen to do it like that.”

For some reason, she actually believes that. “I guess… If you couldn’t control it… It’s fine.”

“So is it like a safety thing?” Tatsuki looks thoughtful now. “Okay, so, like, you’re some kind of weird… Human and cat hybrid who can turn into a cat and mostly into a human, and you stay cat because that’s safer to do. So does this mean you trust Orihime or something?”

“I have no reason not to trust her. She was kind to me. Look.” Sosuke holds out his hand, his forearm now bearing a cleaner and more well-fitting bandage.

Dark brown eyes narrow slightly before drifting to Orihime once more. “What happened?”

“When I carried him into the bathroom to get a towel to dry him off with, I found out his paw was hurt. Or, um, his arm.” How is she supposed to talk about him? What kind of protocol is there for something like this? “So I bandaged it. The bandage was there when I woke up and found him like this, and so’s the wound. I just put a nicer bandage on him.”

“She took care of me,” Sosuke says and then firmly scrubs his cheek into her hair again.

In her mind’s eye, Orihime can imagine her hair coming to life with all kinds of static because of this, but she keeps thinking about the way Sosuke had rubbed his much smaller cat cheeks on her when he’d been smaller. And furrier. Is he just being affectionate like this now? She has no idea. She doesn’t even know if she could research it short of just asking him questions, but that seems like a weird thing to want to know in the first place.

The last thing she needs is him getting the wrong idea about any of this.

Ichigo texts back to assure her he’s still in possession of all of his limbs and internal organs when Tatsuki speaks up again. “Well, like, you know you can’t stay here, right?”

_ Oh. _ “Tatsuki-chan, now, I wouldn’t really feel right just throwing him out onto the—”

“I know,” Sosuke interrupts her, and Orihime frowns, turning around as best she can to look back at him, her heart thudding a little pitifully at how sad he looks when he says this. “I’ve overstayed my welcome as it is. I so badly wanted in out of the rain that I didn’t really stop to think about what might happen or who might pick me up, but now that the rain has stopped, I’ll just turn back and resume my life on the streets.”

Tatsuki seems satisfied with this. “I can return the litter since it’s unopened and—”

“Now wait a second,” Orihime says, surprised at herself.  _ No, don’t interrupt. You can’t take care of a grown… Cat-man, or whatever he is.  _ “I wouldn’t feel right just tossing you out onto the street like that, Sosuke. It doesn’t seem like it’s a safe place for you.”

“This was just an accident. It won’t happen again,” Sosuke reassures her, holding the bandage up where she can see it again. “You’ve been kind, but I can’t impose on you.”

Today has been a very long day, Orihime thinks. Work was bad. The cute, sweet, loving cat she picked up off of the street turned into a naked man on her and now he’s just going to leave and go back onto the street and, really, she knows she should let him. That he is a stranger to her, not someone she should keep in her apartment no matter how nice he is to her. After all, how would she ever explain his presence here to Sora? Her brother visits often enough that it would be nearly impossible to pretend Sosuke didn’t exist.

Fighting him on leaving is stupid. She just needs to let him go.

“It’s dark out, and there are all kinds of mean people on the street. Why don’t you just stay the night and leave in the morning?” Orihime ventures, hoping that can work as a solution for both of them right now. She just. She needs time to process all of this.

Sosuke leans around her again, and she marvels at the fact he can keep his balance with as much movement as he’s going through. Does it have something to do with his tail? “Are you sure? Far be it from me to turn down a free bed, but I’ve already slept here once.”

“Orihime,” Tatsuki says softly, “it really would be better if he just left right now.”

“That’s… That’s stupid. Look, he’s hurt.” Orihime takes him carefully by the arm, and Sosuke lets her, nuzzling his face into her hair once more. “And, like, okay. It’s weird. I know it’s weird. I know that I just can’t, like, ignore this. I get that. But it’s dark out, and it’s supposed to storm again tonight. I wouldn’t be able to sleep if he left now.”

Tatsuki combs her fingers through her hair, mussing the short strands into a further spiky disarray. “If I didn’t have work, I’d stay over with you just to make sure nothing happened. Are you really sure about this? You really want him to spend the night in your apartment?”

“He could have already murdered me in my sleep if he really wanted to,” Orihime reasons, jumping when Sosuke whimpers softly against her hair. “What? What’s wrong?”

His arms tighten around her again and she wonders if he plans on suffocating her with affection in a literal sense. “I wouldn’t hurt you. I haven’t done anything to make you think that, have I? You’ve been so kind to me. I don’t want you to be afraid.”

“I’m not afraid of you. Really, I’m not.” Really, she’s not. “That’s why I want you to stay the night, okay? Because I’m not scared and you need somewhere to sleep tonight.”

Sosuke mewls softly and then goes back to nuzzling into her hair, which is fine.

“I really don’t understand anything that’s going on anymore, so I’m going to go home, drink until it definitely doesn’t make sense, and then go to sleep.” Tatsuki eyes the two of them as she rises to her feet and Orihime gently disentangles herself from Sosuke’s body as she stands to walk her friend to the door. “Please be safe. I’m serious.”

“He isn’t going to hurt me, Tatsuki-chan. You really don’t have anything to be afraid of.” And when he leaves in the morning with her unscathed, she’ll have been right.

Sighing, Tatsuki pulls her into a hug. “Right. Well, anyway, I put the receipt for the stuff in the bag, so if you need me to take it back, I can do that. But we’ll worry about it tomorrow, or something. Just please be careful. You know I love you.”

“I love you, too. Go get some sleep. You need it.” Orihime pats her on the back soothingly, then walks her the rest of the way to the door and opens it for her.

Throwing one last look at Sosuke on the couch, Tatsuki sighs. “You’re so right. I do.”

The minute Orihime has shut and locked the door again, she turns to Sosuke and plants her hands on her hips, trying to look as stern as possible— Which is exceedingly hard when he looks up at her with those soft, warm, kitten eyes. Brown in this form, not green, but even more devastating as a result. She needs answer at the very least if he’s going to stay the night, and she thinks she deserves them considering he smuggled his way into her apartment in her  _ jacket. _ Which she does  _ not _ want to think about in great detail.

Oh, she had undressed as she walked through her apartment.  _ Oh my God. _

“You.” She points to him and Sosuke blinks up at her, pulling himself across the couch, the blanket just barely holding onto his waist. “Tell me where you— Oh.”

Without any hesitation, Sosuke catches her by the wrist and draws her closer, setting her hand on top of his head with a pitiful little mewling sound that melts her heart.  _ Oh no. _ “I’m sorry if I’ve made you angry. I didn’t mean to transform back at all.”

“It’s… I’m not angry.” Orihime strokes his hair gently, marveling at how long it is, how soft, how much body it has. “Where did you even come from? I found you under a bench.”

Sosuke presses his head up into her hand and she figures she might get some decent answers if she just keeps petting him, so she does. “I’m thirty years old, Orihime. I’ve been around a long time. I’ve lived in this country all my life, and in this city for the last five years. It’s not been very easy. Some people seek out cats to mistreat them.”

She knows that, but hearing it out loud does not make it hurt any less to think about. “I’m sorry. Have you just been hiding all this time? You don’t have anywhere you can stay?”

“No. My kind… Some people like to hunt us down specifically to hurt us because we aren’t exactly normal, are we?” Sosuke closes his eyes as she cups a hand around one of his ears, tracing her thumb along the edge of the shell. “That’s very nice. I was just looking for somewhere to outlast the storm, but my leg hurt. Walking made it very sore.”

Her heart throbs at the thought. “I’m sorry. What happened to it? You said an accident—”

“I leapt over a fence when I was running from a couple of teenage boys who discovered me sleeping beneath a dumpster. I did not quite clear it.” Sosuke rolls his wrist and Orihime winces at the imagery, her free hand moving to cradle his arm gently.

“I’m sorry. It sounds like a shitty way to live.” She can’t even imagine how afraid he must have been, how much worse the injury made it for him. “And you’ve never had a home? Just somewhere you could stay with someone who was okay with what you are?”

Sosuke is quiet, his eyes fluttering open and meeting hers. “There was one place, but when it was discovered that I was there by the wrong people, the house was ransacked. I visibly ran away so they would chase me. I didn’t want to go back and impose any longer.”

_ No wonder he’s so willing to just leave. _ “Well… I know it’s not much, but you really don’t have to just leave in the morning. You can stay until your arm gets better, if you want. That way I can disinfect it and make sure it never gets infected or anything.”

“I wouldn’t want to impose on you. You’ve already been kinder to me than most humans when they find out what I am.” Just the same, Sosuke presses his head up into her hand again, and she resumes petting his ear, switching from one to the other carefully so as not to hurt him. “But that would be lovely. I’d be able to walk on it easily then.”

Tatsuki was going to be unhappy if she found out about it, so Orihime resolves to just not tell her outright Sosuke is still here. Lies of omission and whatnot, but he  _ needs _ somewhere to stay at least until he gets better, and Orihime… Is lonely.

“Then you should stay until you get better. I don’t mind. You’ve been nice to me, too.” And when Sosuke mewls up at her, tail breaking free from the blanket to wave softly through the air, it makes her heart beat just a little stupidly faster against her ribs.

The blanket. Right. “Let me see if I might have  _ something _ you can fit into. It’d be weird for you to just walk around my apartment naked while you’re healing.”

“I can just turn back into a cat if you’d be more comfortable with my presence as such,” Sosuke offers, tilting his head, his tongue scraping along the inside of her wrist.

Oh that’s… Very odd. “I mean… If you want to turn back into a cat, by all means, but maybe I have a set of my brother’s clothes or something around. Sometimes he forgets and leaves them when he visits, and you’re… I think you’re about the same size? Maybe?”

“It’s nice being in this shape again,” Sosuke admits, which is roughly what Orihime thought he would say. “If you don’t mind letting me borrow the clothes? I’d be very grateful.”

“Sure.” Orihime pats him on the head and hurries to her room to go through her dresser.

Sora typically forgets things; his one flaw is his memory, bless his heart, and Orihime usually just washes his clothing and keeps it folded until the next time he visits so she can give it back to him. It’s not like he would mind if she lended it to a… Can Sosuke be considered a friend? A cat? She has no idea. This is all making her brain ache.

She finds some of Sora’s clothing in her bottom drawer and breathes a sigh of relief. Pajamas, perfect to sleep in. Underwear… Necessary. “Okay, I found some—”

The minute she turns toward the doorway, she shrieks and falls back, not expecting to see Sosuke standing right there, holding the blanket around his waist still.

“Did I startle you?” He’s on the floor in an instant to help her sit up, brushing her hair back carefully out of her face as he does. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I thought you’d realized I followed you down the hallway, but I suppose my footsteps were too quiet.”

Orihime rubs a hand over her face. “No, Sosuke, you’re fine. I should have paid attention. Do we need to cut a hole in the underwear and pants? Your tail needs to poke through.”

“You shouldn’t damage them for me,” he says resolutely. “I can wear them as is.”

“Since you didn’t just say  _ no, _ I assume that means yes.” Orihime pats the top of her dresser until she finds the tiny pair of scissors there she uses to cut tags off of her clothing. “Okay, get dressed and then I’ll figure out where to cut the hole in the seams. I can just sew them back up if they’re there and I don’t think he’ll notice.”

“Your brother? What’s he like?” Sosuke drops the blanket and Orihime drops the scissors so she can smash her hands over her eyes, not keen on seeing Sosuke naked.

“He’s very nice. He helps me pay for the apartment while I’m figuring out what I want to do with the rest of my life.” She can hear the sound of fabric rustling but doesn’t chance it, not sure she could live the rest of her life she’d seen… Oh, she’d seen in cat form.  _ Oh. _ “Sometimes he forgets his clothes, though, which is why I have them.”

“I’m all done, now. You can look.” Sosuke’s voice is gentle, almost teasing her.

After peeking between her fingers to ensure he has  _ all _ of the clothing on, Orihime has him turn around, checking where his tail should poke through before picking up the scissors to open up the seams. “Try not to tear the seams wider. I mean, I can always sew them back up if they do get torn open too wide, but I just don’t want to do extra work.”

“I’ll be good,” Sosuke tells her, and something about that statement makes her face hot again. “You’re handling this very well for a woman who had a naked cat sleeping on top of her. I was surprised when you didn’t attempt to assault me on sight.”

“I mean, I thought about it. I just went into freeze instead of fight or flight and that made me realize you were the kitty I picked up off the street.” It’s awkward, cutting holes with the clothing  _ on _ him and she’s very aware that her hands are centimeters away from his butt, but there isn’t anything she can do about that. “By the way… I’m sorry if I squished you against my boobs while you were in my jacket.”

Sosuke laughs, and the sound is warm and surprisingly gentle. “Don’t apologize. It was very warm and comfortable. I was grateful that someone was taking care of me.”

The words make her all kinds of sad and she wonders how long he’s been wanting this exact thing only to be denied it. Well, no, she knows at least five years so far, but still. The thought makes her feel awful. Sora had always been there for her when she was growing up and only in very distant nightmares does she remember anything of the childhood they shared with their parents; Sora carried those scars on his own. She can’t imagine going  _ years _ without any kind of affection or care. She’s never had to, not with Sora.

“Well, I’ll do my best why you’re staying with me, okay?” Orihime checks to make sure the seams are opened up enough before threading his tail through, satisfied with the results. “There we go, nice and cozy. Do you want something to eat? I know you had fish earlier, but that wasn’t really a lot for someone who is now, um, human-sized.”

She’s amused at the way Sosuke’s tail flicks around as he cups his chin, humming softly to himself. “Yes, please. It doesn’t have to be hot if you don’t want to cook.”

“I still have fried rice. I can heat it up for you.” Like hell she’s going to make him eat cold food when it takes only a few minutes to reheat something nice to eat.

Even in a human shape, Sosuke seems content to follow her around the apartment, and she realizes he doesn’t quite walk flat on his feet but more on the front of them, a weirdly elegant gait that is indeed nearly soundless.  _ His tail probably helps him balance, _ she thinks, turning on the stove and setting herself to the task of getting the food warm. The minute she steps moving, Sosuke plants his chin on her shoulder and purrs softly in her ear.

“What’s this for?” she squeaks out, more than a little scandalized by this point.

“It’s because I like you,” Sosuke tells her plainly, and Orihime’s heart leaps right up into her throat at the quality of his voice like this, and right next to her ear. “You’ve done more nice things to me than anyone has in years. I can’t help being a little affectionate— Unless it bothers you and then I’ll go sit in the living room until the food is ready.”

It’s  _ stupid _ how fast she reaches around behind her, making a grab for his hip, fingers sliding against the pajama pants instead. “No, no, you can stay. I was just curious.”

“All right.” And Sosuke stays right there, pressing his chest into her back once more, his chin resting on her shoulder, his tail sneaking around to curl around her waist.

He has at least a foot of height on her, fingernails that look like claws, canines that look sharp enough to cut, and… And he’s leaning against her and purring in her ear and  _ cuddling _ her while she stands at the stove, and all because, what, she’s given him some clothes to wear and is being kind to him? The thought is depressing, but she supposes it makes sense given the fact that he’s had nothing. He’s probably touch-starved on top of all of that, and don’t cats typically like affection if you’re kind and treat them with tenderness?

_ Well, it’s fine. I’ll just do my best to make up for it while he’s staying here with me. _

Sosuke noses into her hair, and when he exhales, it makes her shiver. “Your shampoo smells very nice. Is it some kind of berry? It doesn’t smell like any kind of citrus.”

“Strawberries and cream. Um. If you want to shower after you eat, you can. And just put those clothes back on since they’re clean. I’ll get you a towel and everything.” Even though he seems very clean, she imagines the idea of a hot shower must sound nice and given the way he trills at her, she must be right. “You can use my shampoo if you want to.”

His nose tickles her ear. “I’d be delighted. It really does smell very nice.”

She dishes up his food for him and sets him at the counter to eat while she heads into the bathroom, fishing out a clean towel to set on the sink counter and making sure there’s a fresh washcloth as well. She sets out a new bar of soap since she’d been meaning to anyway, deciding she can just shower in the morning. It wasn’t like she’d sweat at work or anything and she had showered once this morning, it was just going to be an indulgent way to warm up after a long shift and waiting for her bus in the rain.

Honestly, after Sosuke had pressed himself against her so much, she doesn’t feel even the slightest bit of a lingering chill. He really was all kinds of warm and cuddly.

When she turns around, she jumps to find him waiting in the doorway, already skimming the shirt up and over his head.  _ Oh jeez. _ He has a distressingly nice body for a cat. “I’ve got it all set up for you. Enjoy your shower, okay? I’m just going to load the dishwasher.”

Before she can edge around him, Sosuke pulls her into his chest, all that warm soft skin. “Thank you, Orihime. For everything you’ve given me so far. It means a lot.”

Her hands end up pressed against his chest in reaction and she can  _ feel _ how soft his skin is, the lean muscle beneath. “Of course. Don’t even mention it. Just enjoy your shower.”

Sosuke nuzzles her hair before letting her go and she pulls the door shut behind her, walking toward the kitchen in a daze. It’s going to be very difficult living with this cat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is the most self-indulgent bullshit i have ever written in my LIFE


	3. Chapter 3

As it turns out, Sosuke is a better roommate than anyone Orihime has lived with before.

She wakes up the next morning to find the apartment has been swept and her laundry is missing from its chair; a quick glance back in her closet reveals everything has been hung up neatly. The kitchen counters have been wiped down, her tiled floors have been mopped, and Sosuke is sitting at her tiny kitchen table waiting for her, his chin propped on the palm of his hand, tail swaying back and forth behind him as he looks up at her with those pretty cocoa eyes of his. He has breakfast laid out on the table for her.

“When did you have time to do all of this?” Orihime glances at the clock on the stove and winces when she sees the time. “I didn’t mean to sleep past noon—”

Sosuke shakes his head up at her. “It’s quite fine. If you needed the rest, you needed it. I thought I would be of some help if you’re going to let me stay here.”

“How’s your wrist?” Orihime notices the fresh gauze and holds her hand out immediately, and Sosuke lets her take it. “I hope it’s feeling better this morning, er, afternoon.”

“It’s healing well already. You must have a magic touch.” Sosuke’s smile for her is serene and Orihime tries to ignore how hot it makes her face feel to see that.

Her gaze drops down to the table instead. “I didn’t know you could cook like this.”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve cooked, but I think I managed just fine. Everything tasted edible when I finished with it.” Sosuke looks up at her expectantly and she finally sits down, surprised when he jumps up a moment later. “What would you like to drink?”

“Oh, um, milk is fine.” Coffee would be preferable but she tries to save it for the week days only when she needs it to get to her shift and make it through the first two hours.

Watching Sosuke move on his feet is just as interesting to her now as it was last night before fatigue finally won out and he insisted she should go to bed. He does walk on the front of his feet, arched delicately off of the floor with his tail keeping him balanced with each step. He seems especially graceful to her, unlike any man she has ever seen, and  _ easily _ twice as handsome as— No, she needs to stop those thoughts. They are not going to get her anywhere fast, and Sosuke would likely not appreciate the ogling.

He sets a glass of milk in front of her and mewls a soft greeting, nuzzling against the top of her head. “I’m happy you’re awake now. I enjoyed spending time with you yesterday.”

She is going to  _ die _ long before he decides that he wants to go on his way. “Oh? That’s good. I’m sorry if I was… I’m still trying to figure all of this out, you know?”

“You’ve been perfectly kind and lovely to me. There is nothing to apologize for.” Sosuke rubs his cheek against the top of her head and she thinks  _ scent-marking _ and assumes this is just… What he has to do to feel comfortable here in her apartment with her.

Oh God, her  _ hair. _ She never even  _ brushed _ it before coming out here to see where he was and to see the extent of what was clean. Her bedhead must be legendarily awful.

Sosuke says nothing about it, only returns to his seat and watches her, not touching his food until she gets the message and picks up the fork by her plate. The rice is perfectly cooked and the meat melts on her tongue, the eggs fluffy and soft. Unbidden and without her consent, a moan trembles on the tip of her tongue and she hastily swallows it back down. Across the table, Sosuke seems to  _ preen _ in her acceptance of his food before he tucks in himself, his tail still wafting softly in the air behind him.

“We should probably get some more clothes for you today,” Orihime says, and Sosuke looks up at her as he chews, one ear cocked toward her. Oh no, he is  _ so _ cute. “I don’t have that many of Sora’s clothes here, and if you like being a human, you’ll need clothes.”

“I suppose that’s true. I’d scandalize your friends if I lounged about in a blanket all day,” Sosuke muses, and the imagery makes Orihime feel all kinds of embarrassed.

Oh, her  _ friends. _ What are they going to say about this? Tatsuki is the most relaxed and well-meaning of all of them, but she can easily see the rest of them falling apart at the seams once they realize just what Sosuke is. Ichigo especially, and Uryu will likely have a nervous breakdown trying to figure out if someone can be both a cat and a human at the same time. Well,  _ human _ might be pushing it because Sosuke might look like a man right now, but the ears and the tail are a dead giveaway. Oh, they’ll have to hide those…

“Orihime?” Sosuke cocks his head at her, and the concern in his voice startles her. “You seem upset about something. Do you want to talk about it?”

“No, I’m fine. I was just thinking we’d have to hide your ears and tail if we went out and I was trying to think of how we could do that.” A coat would probably succeed in hiding his tail, and a hat for the ears? It’s going to be uncomfortable, but it might work.

Sosuke is quiet for a moment before he looks down at his plate, but the way his ears droop hurts her heart. “If it’s all the same to you, I’m not comfortable going outside like this.”

“O-oh?” Orihime sets her fork down, not sure she heard him correctly. “Why is that?”

“Because I’m much more easily recognized in this form than as a cat, and I don’t want certain people finding me. It’s why I was hiding out on the streets as a cat in the first place,” Sosuke says, pushing his eggs around on his plate.

_ Of course. I’m such an idiot. He was hiding. _ “I’m sorry. Look, you don’t have to go with me. I can just look at Sora’s clothing size and go buy some things like that, okay? Any particular colors or patterns you want, we can just talk about it before I go.”

“Thank you.” Sosuke smiles up at her, and Orihime’s heart thuds against her ribs pathetically fast. “Maybe someday I’ll feel safer when I’m outdoors.”

“I hope you know that no matter who tries to come get you, I’m not going to let them take you away. No matter what,” Orihime says, trying to make her voice sound firm.

Though he doesn’t quite look like he believes she could do that, Sosuke does smile for her once more, and his ears perk back up. “Thank you, Orihime.”

After breakfast, Orihime insistently shoos him away from the kitchen so she can load the dishwasher herself. Sosuke hovers in the doorway for a moment looking like he might insert himself into helping her one way or another before sauntering off, and she sighs in relief as she picks out the detergent from below the sink. What is she going to  _ do? _ Taking in a stray cat out of the rain was not supposed to result in a handsome roommate who managed to get too far under her skin by doing nothing more than smiling.

Well, he’d done quite a bit more than smile. His naturally affectionate cat-like nature is going to get to her first. How many times can she pet him before it becomes weird?

Her phone vibrates on the counter and she picks it up to see a text from Ichigo informing her that he survived his date, his date was hot, does she have plans today? The question catches her off-guard before she remembers she needs to buy clothes for Sosuke, and this would be the perfect chance to go without having to pay for the bus. Ichigo has his own car, after all, even if it only runs perfectly via blood ritual performance.

“Sosuke,” Orihime calls out, and he’s there in a moment, leaning into the kitchen doorway. “I’m going to go out with a friend so we can get your clothes for you, okay?”

“Okay, understood.” Sosuke watches her set the dishwasher and then beams at her, holding his arms out. “Come here first, though.”

Right, affectionate kitty cat. Orihime beams up at him and walks over to him, letting him pull her in close, her own arms rising to settle around his trim waist. He really is just too much on the slender side for comfort, but she figures that with enough food and care he’s going to bulk back up to his proper size in no time. At least, that’s what she hopes.

“I hope you won’t be too lonely without me,” she says, running her hands up and down  his back, listening to him mewl softly in her ear. “You won’t be, will you?”

Sosuke shakes his head and she looks up at him, seeking the true confirmation in his eyes and smiling when he kisses her on the forehead. “I’ll be just fine. And you’ll be home soon anyway, it isn’t like you’re going to stay out all night. Will you sit with me before you go?”

“Of course. I don’t have to go right away.” Besides, Ichigo sleeps even later into the day than she does, a bonus of working nights, she guesses.

They sit on the couch together and she turns on the television to the news while Sosuke sprawls in her lap, tucking his broad shoulders in so he can press as close to her as possible. If he’d been anyone else, she might have thought what he was doing was slightly perverted, but he closes his eyes the moment her fingers touch the top of his head, curling in the soft hair there. All he seems to want is affection and attention, and he closes his eyes when she starts stroking one of his impossibly soft ears.

In all fairness, it isn’t like she knows what else to do with a cat person.

Sosuke falls asleep on top of her, something she should have seen coming, but she lets him rest while she plays with his hair and pets his ears. Like this, she can just look at him. He has dark circles under his eyes, a remnant of no doubt many sleepless nights spent on the streets, and there are small scars on his forearms. How much has he gone through?

It makes her think of her childhood, suddenly, and her heart lurches in her chest.

_ I’m not going to let anything more happen to you, _ she thinks, brushing the backs of her knuckles along Sosuke’s cheek, smiling when he makes a soft, faint little noise in the back of his throat.  _ I’m going to protect you and keep you safe and sound now. _

As if sensing her eyes on him, Sosuke stirs and looks up at her. “Oh, sorry. I must have dozed off on top of you. I hope your legs didn’t fall asleep.”

They are asleep, but Orihime ignores the numbness. “You’re fine. Wake up too early?”

“Had a restless night,” Sosuke corrects, and Orihime frowns at the thought. Nightmares? Probably so, and there’s so little she can do to protect him from those. “But it’s fine. I’ll just have to get used to being safe when I sleep. I hope you slept well?”

“Slept like the dead,” Orihime confirms, and Sosuke chuckles softly up at her.

He settles back into her lap at her coaxing and lets her run her fingers through his hair, twining it into loose curls before letting the spirals slip away. The gentle touch seems to be just what he likes, and soon the soft rumble of a purr rises up from his chest. Everything about him is so perfectly lovely and soft, and it makes Orihime’s chest ache in unfamiliar ways. When he closes his eyes and lets himself relax against her fully, she slides her hand through his hair and up to his ears, giving each of them a gentle skritch that increases the depth of his purrs. His entire  _ body _ seems to be vibrating now.

When her phone vibrates on the couch next to her, Orihime picks it up to check the message. “Oh, Tatsuki is asking how things are going. And if last night really happened.”

“Tell her it didn’t,” Sosuke says, and Orihime rolls her eyes. “Maybe it’ll save her sanity.”

_ Now that is a thought. _ Instead, Orihime takes a subtle picture of Sosuke half-asleep on her lap and sends it to Tatsuki with the reassurance that everything is fine and her new housemate is getting along with her. Tatsuki’s response is relieved but obviously less than excited given the fact that she’s still not entirely comfortable with this situation.

So be it. Orihime made her choice, and she’s going to follow through with it.

Ichigo does text her back finally, letting her know he’ll be ready to go in like half an hour, and what does she need men’s clothing for anyway? So she lies and tells him she wants to pick out a few things for her brother, a good enough excuse. Sosuke watches her type on her phone without a word, and she puts a hand back in his hair as soon as it’s free, giggling when she melts in against her again with a soft little meow.

_ It could be worse, _ she thinks, rubbing her thumb along the line of his jaw, scratching at his scalp until he arches his neck for her.  _ He could be all claws and bite. He  _ is _ a tomcat. _

Does that word technically count for a human? Surely it must if  _ cat _ can.

“We’re going to be leaving in half an hour,” she says. “So what do you want me to get you?”

Sosuke yawns against her stomach, and her heart skips a beat. He’s so fucking  _ cute _ . “Anything is fine, Orihime. I mean that. I have no preference for colors or patterns, but I don’t like polyester very much. It makes my skin itch. Otherwise, do as you wish.”

“I just want you to be happy with anything we pick out because I don’t want to risk bringing back something that you aren’t going to like wearing.” And it isn’t like she has the money to waste, either. Anything she gets has to be something he’d want to wear.

“I’ll be happy with it because you picked it out for me with thought and care.” Sosuke sits up, and she remembers just how much taller than her that he is. The way his ears tip forward toward her is sweet, as is the way he sits up on his knees with his hands flat on the cushion. “You’re already doing so much for me. Don’t you see how much it all means to me, to be safe and warm and taken care of? It’s been  _ years _ since I’ve had this.”

_ Years. _ Orihime feels dizzy at the thought. “Are you sure you’re really okay with it?”

“Yes. I’m sure you wouldn’t get me anything that’s not comfortable and warm, anyway.” Sosuke leans in and presses his face up against hers, and Orihime… Really cannot ignore how nice that feels. How nice  _ he _ feels. “I trust you with this.”

He tumbles back into her lap and she lets him, combing her fingers through his hair while she answers Ichigo’s text messages. She  _ really _ hopes he’s only answering her when he hits a red light rather than trying to text while he drives, but, well… She  _ knows _ him too well.

“Okay, Sosuke.” Orihime pats him gently on the top of the head and Sosuke sits up, stretching his arms over his head, arching his back deeply as he does. He’s  _ flexible. _ “I’ll be back soon. Enjoy the peace and quiet and I’ll be back with your clothes in no time.”

“Have a good time.” Sosuke rubs his cheek against her hair and smiles warmly.

Ichigo is waiting downstairs when Orhime steps out of her apartment building, pulling at the bottom of her pale pink blouse and casting a glance up at the sky. Her umbrella is shoved into her purse just in case of emergency, and from the darkness of the sky over her head, she very much believes she is going to end up needing it sooner rather than later. At least she came prepared instead of getting rain on in the city again.

“Hime,” Ichigo greets her when she slips into his car, quickly buckling her seatbelt. He looks like he just rolled out of bed, threw on what was closest to him at the time, and ran his fingers through his hair before putting on a pair of sunglasses and calling it good. He is so immensely important to Orihime, it’s a bit ridiculous. “Let’s go get your brother some stuff. Is his birthday coming up soon or something?”

“I just wanted to do something nice for him. You know how much he’s helped me.” Best to leave it at that, too, because she doesn’t want to think about just how  _ much _ Sora has done for her or what he’s going to say if he finds out about her houseguest.

Sora would not be pleased and she knows that, so she’ll have to run interference.

“How was work yesterday?” Ichigo asks her, swerving across two lanes of traffic to get where he wants to go. Orihime grips her seatbelt tightly. “You got the weekend off?”

Orihime bobs her head in a nod, looking down at her nails where they bite into the fabric of the strap. She needs to redo them soon. The paint is chipping. “I do. I thought I’d just spend it at my apartment catching up on sleep. You know how that is.”

“Who needs sleep?” Ichigo drives with one hand on the wheel and the other on his hand, fingers drumming along his thigh to the beat of the song on his radio.

At least he isn’t trying to make plans she would have to come up with excuses for. “So, your date. Why don’t you tell me more about him? You were raving about him.”

“He’s a god, I think. He’s the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen in my entire life and I  _ must _ marry him as soon as possible before someone else swoops in.” Ichigo’s face lights up as he talks, and his hand flies through the air, his gesticulations as wild as the rise and fall of his voice. “His name is Grimmjow— I  _ know _ it’s a weird name—”

“I wasn’t going to say it was a weird name,” Orihime says. She was just going to think it.

Ichigo laughs, the sound vibrant and filling up the entire inside of the car. Once upon a time, Orihime thought she was in love with him, but now she knows better. She thinks it let her learn to love all of him, though, as his close friend. All the harsh edges and softer, brighter points of him drawing together for the bigger picture. “I’m in  _ love _ with him.”

“Didn’t you just meet him? You should take it slow,” she cautions him.

“I will die before I take that advice and that’s a threat.” Ichigo wiggles his eyebrows at her before he jams his foot down on the gas, accelerating enough that the car trying to creep in front of them is forced back once more, blaring their horn at them.

Because he is Ichigo, he ignores it. “So, this guy. Grimmjow. He’s such a babe. He came in one night with his friends and I was like, I’m seeing things. No man is  _ this _ hot.”

“Did you hit on him in front of his friends?” Because she can just  _ imagine _ that.

“He hit on  _ me _ in front of his friends, which is like uncool because I was at work but I was like, receptive to it instead of shutting him down. You know.” Ichigo wobbles his hand back and forth and Orihime nods; she knows what it’s like to feel trapped when the attention is unwanted, after all. The counter is both a safe barrier and a wall between her and freedom. “And like, he’s so loud and obnoxious and tough and funny. I really do love him.”

“I hope things work out for you, then. Are you going to see him again?” Orihime feels a nervous flutter in her gut when Ichigo nearly rear-ends someone trying to switch lanes.

He nods, and he looks so impossibly comfortable in his element like this. “Oh, yeah. I was gonna ask if you wanted to come with us one day. He’s got this, like, one friend—”

“You’re trying to set me up on a date and I don’t think I like that,” Orihime says.

Ichigo gives her an appropriately pained expression. “But he’s like, your type. He’s… I mean, he’s like goth? He’s goth and short and he has a horrible sense of humor. You’d love him.”

“You are doing a terrible job at selling this guy as someone I’d want to date.” Though, truth be told, it’s been a while since Orihime went on a date with  _ anyone _ male or female.

She has no real preference for any gender of partner; work just tends to make it hard to want to do anything. It’s a training experience and it bankrupts her of people points for the day so she hardly wants to go out and meet and see new people. By the time the weekend comes, she’s fallen behind on sleep once more and just wants to catch up, and then before she knows it, Monday arrives and she ends up back at work. Roughly half of the time, she dreads making plans on the weekend anyway because she just wants to rest, not end up spending her two days off tiring herself out even more.

“I can show you a picture of him when we get to the store,” Ichigo tells her before looking at her and  _ away from the road. _ “Are we going to that thrift store uptown?”

“Absolutely. You know it’s my favorite.” Cheap and stylish clothes? Nothing better. “So—”

“So Grimmjow. He’s tall and handsome and funny and he can speak Spanish, and he works in landscaping because of course he does. He’s  _ built, _ too.” Ichigo nearly swoons in his seat.

It does Orihime’s heart good to see him happy again even if her heart immediately jumps up into her throat when he narrowly misses a red light. “I’m happy for you, then.”

“I want you to meet him but I don’t want you to feel like an awkward third wheel, so I thought Ulquiorra could come with us. That’s his friend.” Ichigo adjusts his rearview mirror, ironic given Orihime is certain he hasn’t been using it this entire time. “And if Ulquiorra turns out to be a creep, we’ll just dump him off somewhere. Or go back to Grimmjow’s place and you can hang out with his cat while we make out on his couch.”

“He has a cat?” Orihime hopes her voice does not betray her one bit on that sentence.

Ichigo brightens once more, and the smile he sends her is so sly it makes her stomach twist. “Oh yeah. I  _ knew _ that’d get your attention. He has a  _ beautiful _ cat. Big fluffy golden thing with long fur, he showed me on his phone. I was over the moon. I love cats.”

“I thought you were a dog person,” Orihime muses, and Ichigo scowls at her.

They reach the thrift store in one piece and she seriously considers getting Sosuke a burner phone just so she can let him know things like when she gets somewhere safely before realizing… He probably wouldn’t care, would he? She doesn’t know him well enough to know if it means something to him either way, so maybe they should talk about it.

It’s hard to figure out the rules of having a temporary feline roommate.

“Here we go.” Ichigo cards through his gallery as they walk inside and he shoves the phone into her face. “This is Ulquiorra. I made Grimmjow send me a flattering picture of him for you to look at to decide. He’s a pretty cute guy. I’d totally date him.”

When Orihime manages to slip the phone out of Ichigo’s hand and hold it far enough away from her face so she can actually see the image, her eyes widen. Ulquiorra  _ is _ pretty, and Ichigo was not kidding when he said a flattering picture. The backdrop makes her think of summer, the man front and center in the image standing beneath the limbs of a tree so that sunlight and shadow create stripes across his body. The light illuminates his warm brown skin and long black hair, tied back at the nape of his neck.

What catches her attention the most though are his eyes, huge and green and overwhelming in the vibrance of their color and intensity. He is  _ beautiful. _

“I’ll go,” she says without even thinking about it, and Ichigo beams at her. “I swear, if you told anyone else about this  _ first _ and I find out about it—”

“Believe me, princess, I saved the best just for you. He’s like, all artsy and quiet and shit and he wears too much black which means he’ll be  _ perfect _ for you.” Ichigo gives her a meaningful look as he takes back his phone, shoving it into his back pocket.

It’s true; Orihime had a streak of emo boyfriends right out of high school and it’s her biggest weakness. “He’s gorgeous. I hope he doesn’t say something stupid as soon as he opens his mouth. You have no idea how frequently goth guys will do that.”

Ichigo offers her his arm and Orihime takes it, and the two of them make their way through the thrift store and the colorful arrays and mountains of clothes to choose from. She knows what sizes Sora wears and goes one size up because she intends for Sosuke to gain a little more weight while he lives with her, wanting to make sure he’s padded out better for when he goes back to the life he led before her. It’s the least she can do to make sure he has a better chance at a nice, happy life.

By the time they leave the store, she has a few bags of various clothes she hopes Sosuke will like and made  _ sure _ to pick out a few things that are warm and soft and will offer him some comfort from the cold rain. Ichigo gives her a look at just how much she buys but the moment she launches into the  _ Do you know how much Sora did for me _ speech, he throws his hands up and begs to help carry the bags so they can get out faster.

“You want me to help you carry this stuff up?” Ichigo asks her back at her apartment, watching her load the bags onto her arms. “Well, fuck me, I guess you got it.”

Orihime beams at him. She’s not ready for him to meet Sosuke. “You know I’m strong.”

“You’ve been taking weight-lifting lessons from Chad, I knew it.” Ichigo narrows his eyes at her, then laughs. “I’ll text you about that double date when I get home to talk to Grimmjow and then we can figure out what to do. Sound good to you?”

“Yeah. It’d  _ also _ be nice if you could float me Ulquiorra’s number when you get it so we can have a baseline to work with,” Orihime says, giving him a meaningful look.

“True, true. I’ll do that. Have a good day.” Ichigo sticks his tongue out at her and Orihime returns the gesture before heading back upstairs to her apartment.

Sosuke must be waiting for her because as soon as she stops in front of the door, it opens and he is standing in the doorway, head cocked as he looks at the bags. “That’s so much.”

“Well, you need variety to choose from. It’s the spice of life.” Orihime bustles past him and sets the bags down on the floor, smoothing out her shirt just as a crackle of thunder outside makes her jump. She’d just barely avoided the storm to get home safe and dry.

A soft whimper startles her and she watches Sosuke’s ears flatten on top of his head as he shuts the door and quickly slinks away from it, putting distance between himself and the windows on either side of her television.  _ Oh. _ He’d been afraid of the storm yesterday in his kitty cat form, but she never stopped to think he might just be afraid of storms outright. He’s probably been caught up in some nasty ones over the years.

“Come here.” Orihime holds her arms out to him and Sosuke steps into them automatically, tucking his nose into the top of her head, nuzzling down into her hair. “There you go. You’re safe and dry inside. Let’s sit down and look at all your new clothes, okay? I’ve got you.”

“Thank you, Hime.” Sosuke nuzzles her once more and then smiles down at her, and it makes her heart flutter. “Let’s look at the clothes. I’m excited to see what you bought.”

After they sort through everything, Sosuke helps her put it all away neatly and then promptly swamps her with affection, purring loudly in her ear as he presses up against her. Orihime laughs and rubs his ears and tells him what a pretty kitten he is, which only seems to make the purring all the louder. As if she could  _ ever _ regret that.

Distantly, she hopes Ulquiorra is a cat person.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> those of you who actually know my writing well: are you getting ready to do what i think you're going to do
> 
> me: >:)


	4. Chapter 4

_I have a cat, I hope that’s fine with you?_

_He’s a really pretty sweet cat I promise._

_I hope you aren’t allergic to cats._

_I love cats. I would own 20 cats if I could._

_Please tell me I can meet your cat?_

 

Orihime glances across the table at Sosuke, who is finishing his salmon and rice. The last few days have been basically perfect as far as she is concerned. There has been one morning where the cat who was supposed to be curled up at the foot of her bed was a man who was wrapped all the way around her like an octopus, but Sosuke is warm and overall, she cannot really say that she minds too much. Besides, he still makes cute half-asleep meowing noises if she touches his ears while he’s next to her, and she loves that.

“Ulquiorra wants to know if he can meet you,” she says, and Sosuke glances up at her.

The two of them eat dinner together when she comes home. Going back to work on Monday was less than enjoyable; her manager dipped out for the day so she had to go in early to open and stay ten minutes late until her cover for the rest of the shift showed up. It almost made her miss her bus home, which put her into an appropriately foul mood.

Then Ulquiorra texted her, and Sosuke was there when she got home to wrap himself around her and cuddle her and make her feel better about her shitty day. For once, coming home late had its perks. He even made dinner for her, which she loves about him.

“He wants to meet me,” Sosuke echoes slowly, his brows furrowing. “Does he know…”

“I told him I had a cat,” Orihime assures him, and Sosuke’s face visibly relaxes.

He stabs a piece of salmon and nods once. “Then it’s fine. I’ll make sure to be nice to him for you. Is he going to be coming over soon, or still not until this weekend?”

“If things go okay this weekend, then maybe I’ll invite him over after that.” Orihime hasn’t been on a date in so long. Would it be weird to invite him over? “If you’re okay with that.”

“As long as he treats you well, I think you should put yourself out there,” Sosuke says.

“Thank you. I think I’m going to do that as long as he’s nice to me,” she says, and Sosuke smiles at her and goes back to finishing his food. Every so often, and in very small increments, he makes a little _nyam_ sound when he bites down on something.

“If he isn’t nice to you, I have claws,” Sosuke reminds her, and it makes her smile. “I will not hesitate to use them on him. I don’t like men who are cruel to women.”

“You’d get along well with my brother. He was very passive aggressively nice to my male friends in high school especially if he thought I liked them.” Orihime shakes her head at the memories; Sora was always concerned about keeping her safe and sound.

Sosuke cocks his head. “None of them were ever cruel to you, were they?”

“No, but he wanted to keep me safe. He always cared about that and always worried about me. Big brothers, you know.” Orihime looks down at her phone. “Or maybe not? I don’t know if you have any siblings. You haven’t told me very much about yourself.”

“I’m an only child,” Sosuke says. “It’s odd for any of us to be, but nevertheless, I am. I didn’t get to spend much time with my parents, either. It makes me think both of us must have had a very troublesome childhood, so I guess we’re united in that.”

Orihime swallows hard. “I’m sorry. I didn’t really know my parents either.”

“It’s a curious thing not to know the people who brought you into the world, isn’t it? But I suppose some of them were terrible and did not deserve to get to know their children.” Sosuke looks down at his plate, then gives his head a small shake. “I’m sorry to even bring all of this up. I know it must be terribly sad to talk about for both of us.”

“Well…” Orihime shrugs a shoulder. “My parents were abusive, so I’m not that sad I never got to know them. Sora says they probably would have killed me.”

Sosuke presses his lips together into a thin line and he looks conflicted for a long moment before he sighs and closes his eyes. “I’m very sorry to hear that, Orihime. I’m glad nothing like that happened to you, though. It would have been sad if we never met each other.”

“Right? But Ulquiorra has been very nice so far, so I’m looking forward to meeting him.” She tells herself not to read too much into what Sosuke says, and besides, she _does_ have a nice man who’s been messaging her, and she should really focus on that instead of possibly thinking about or chasing something that is so far beyond her reach.

It isn’t like Sosuke would feel that way anyway. She has _no_ reason to believe he would even be interested in her and it would be wrong of her to try to chase him in any way. He’s living with her because he has nowhere else to go, after all. Hardly appropriate.

Ulquiorra has been nice to talk to. Orihime has no doubt that he will be shyer in person than he is on his phone, but talking to him helps her get a feel for his personality and how he might act in front of her. Some people are more willing to just say the most controversial, heinous, and awful things in a text conversation they would never say otherwise, so she likes doing it this way first. It gives her some wiggle room.

After they finish eating, she and Sosuke load the dishwasher together and she heads to take a shower while he stretches out on the couch. Having him as a roommate has been easier than it has any right to be, and it makes her life feel so much more normal having him around than not having him at all. She eats three meals a day, she goes to bed at a decent time, she relaxes when she has nothing else to do. Her laundry has been washed and dried and put away on time because as long as he is there to remind her to go downstairs and get it from the machines, he can fold it for her. All in all, a major win.

Then she remembers his hand and sticks her head out of the bathroom. “Sosuke, come here. I want to check up on your wrist before I get in the shower.”

“Oh, all right.” Sosuke hops off of the couch and comes to her, and she never really gets tired of analyzing the way he moves. All slow, easy, graceful steps on the front of his feet, his tail keeping him balanced. His footsteps make no sound on the carpet.

“Let me see.” Orihime takes a few steps back so he can walk into the bathroom with her and then takes his wrist, carefully unwrapping the gauze so she can examine the wound. “Oh, it’s looking much better. I’m still going to disinfect it before I wrap it again.”

“It’s probably for the best so it doesn’t get infected,” Sosuke agrees easily.

The last time she scratched herself at work, all she did was blot the blood away with a paper towel until it was done being so dramatic with itself. Now, she takes her time washing the area, disinfecting the cut, and wrapping more gauze around Sosuke’s wrist to keep the wound covered and safe. She doesn’t want anything to happen to him.

“I wanted to thank you again for letting me stay here.” Sosuke butts his forehead against hers gently, and Orihime smiles softly up at him. “It’s nice getting to relax and just enjoy being able to eat and sleep without worrying about someone trying to find me.”

Though she knows he would tell her more when he wants her to know, Orihime can’t quite help herself. “What kinds of people are even looking for you in the first place?”

“No one good, I’m afraid. Everyone trying to find me right now would very much like me to be dead.” Sosuke frowns when she gasps up at him, then lays his arm around her shoulders. “Once things die down, I’ll be going so you don’t have to worry about them showing up at your doorstep. I don’t want anything bad happening to you when you’ve been so nice to me.”

Orihime shakes her head. “I don’t want anything to happen to you, either.”

“No reason to worry about it now.” Sosuke kisses her on the forehead. “Enjoy your shower. I’m going to go lie down on the couch and try to take a nap.”

Orihime watches him go and sighs softly as she closes the bathroom door, glancing down at her phone. Right. She never replied to Ulquiorra, so she should do that.

 

_He loves people so much so yeah you can meet him._

_But be careful because I’m not declawing him._

_Oh you should never. Animal cruelty._

_I’m excited to meet him._

 

That taken care of, Orihime starts the shower so the water can warm up and strips off her clothes, tossing them in the hamper beside the toilet before glancing at herself in the mirror. Admittedly, she remembers nothing about their parents. Sora tells her that she was three years old when he took her away from them and raised her on his own, and she believes him because there is nothing even in the most distant recesses of her memories. Sometimes, she assumes she must have blocked it out because it was so traumatic.

There is no dismissing the scar, though. It’s half-hidden beneath her right breast but it slips down her stomach enough for her to notice, and it makes her skittery and afraid and so, so grateful her brother saved her from likely dying at her parents’ hands.

Most kids are not as lucky as she is. Most older siblings would not risk so much at the age of eighteen, to start their life so quickly and with a toddler on their hands.

Steam curls from around the edge of the shower curtain, so she tells herself to stop thinking about it and steps inside. And tries to think about something positive instead.

On Saturday afternoon, she has a double date with Ichigo and Grimmjow. It’s mostly so she can meet Ulquiorra and see if the two of them are compatible, and if it goes well she can invite him back to her apartment to meet Sosuke— In cat form, of course. Tatsuki has not been back to her apartment since meeting Sosuke, but she’s sent a few text messages to ask how things are going, and Orihime responds by sending her photos and videos when she can. Of Sosuke as a cute fluffy kitty, which Tatsuki still loves, or of him as a person half-lying on her on the couch, which Tatsuki is definitely not a fan of.

Though she usually ignores the prospect of dating— work is draining, she wants to sleep when she gets home— having Sosuke around has made life easier. It cuts her chores in half, sometimes less if he’s energetic during the day. And finding out she does have energy for more living creatures after she leaves the store for the day makes her want to be around more people than just her friends. To find someone she could really love.

Ulquiorra seems kind enough. He was shy initially when she messaged him, but she knows a few things about him now and thinks they might be able to get along in person. She also shamelessly followed him on Instagram and is relieved to see he’s at least a little less shy on there because he posts a selfie every now and then. He is _really_ handsome.

When she finishes her shower and has herself wrapped up in her bathrobe and her hair in a towel, she finds a message from him on her phone.

 

_Can I bring your cat treats or would that be, like, weird?_

_He’s kind of a fussy cat when it comes to treats but you can try._

_Giving him fish outright will probably make him happiest._

_I’m going to bring him fish, then._

 

Giggling, Orihime heads to her bedroom to get dressed in her pajamas before joining Sosuke in the living room. He raises his head off of the cushion when she walks into the room and pulls his legs in, because the minute she sits down he lays his head in her lap instead. It’s a silent cue to pet his hair so she does, running her fingers through the silky soft length of it, stroking his ears every now and then. He purrs, cheek vibrating against her thigh, and the sound of it is soothing automatically to her now.

“Ulquiorra says he’s going to bring you fish because he wants to get along with you,” she says. “I wanted to ask. Are there, like, a lot more cats like you out there?”

“How nice of him. Marry him immediately.” Sosuke yawns and rolls over a little so he’s looking up at her, his hair fanned over her lap. “There are quite a few of us, yes. I know a handful more, but there are so many I don’t think I’d ever know them all.”

“How come I’ve never seen any of you before? You really good at hiding?” Orihime asks.

Sosuke sighs quietly. “Well, it’s for the same reason your friends other than the one will never know about me. They’ll meet me when I’m in cat form. You’ve probably met others like me without knowing because of that. We do our best to hide.”

Orihime frowns. “I guess that means it’s really dangerous for you to be out and about.”

“It is. We aren’t exactly… People would like to kill us because they fear things they don’t understand, and some people assume we’re demons. People who can turn into animals and vice versa show up as devious monsters in quite a lot of folklore.” Sosuke rolls his eyes and Orihime giggles softly as she pets him on the cheek, watching him lean into it. All affection is just something he soaks in, and she loves watching it. “Do I seem devious to you?”

“You seem clever, but I’d never punish you for that. Ever.” She taps him on the nose and Sosuke mewls up at her, playfully biting her finger. Not hard enough to break the skin.

He lets her go and sighs again. He looks tired. Talking about this always seems to be a little draining for him, and as much as she hates that sincerely, she still can’t stop herself from asking. She can’t just not know him, after all. “I am particularly smart, I think. At least, the person I first lived with always said that. But I haven’t seen him in years.”

“Because people came looking for you?” When Sosuke nods, Orihime frowns. “That’s so sad that you couldn’t stay there. You know you don’t have to leave any time soon, right?”

“I’ll stay for as long as I can, but if they find out I’m here, I won’t endanger you,” Sosuke says, and he sounds like he’s decided it. Like he already means it.

Instead of arguing him, Orihime tickles him under the chin, and he bites her again.

On the sly, she tries looking online for answers, but nothing ever comes up and she feels like looking on the dark web is just going to be too much of a hassle for her to want to sit down and do it. She could ask Uryu or Chad, of course, but it would weird them out now that they know she has a cat, and it isn’t like Tatsuki could be any help because she acted like Sosuke was the first person she ever met like this. Telling Ichigo is out the window because his mouth works faster than his brain and it might get back to the wrong person.

It might get back to someone who would show up so they could hurt Sosuke.

“Don’t you get bored in here all day long?” she asks. “I feel like you must get bored.”

“Not really. The peace and quiet and the chance to nap for sixteen hours is very addicting,” he reassures her, and he smiles when she giggles at him. “Living on the street makes each small thing feel a lot more important, so there’s no concerns to be had about that. If I’m being honest, I could probably live as someone’s house pet for the rest of my life.”

“But would you _want_ to do that?” Orihime frowns when Sosuke loses his smile.

He looks thoughtful for a moment and she plays with his hair, curling the ends around her fingers. Now that he’s been here and has showered a few times and used her shampoo, he smells like her, but his hair has taken on a life of its own. It has a lot of body, a lot of bounce. It’s loosely curled, like it’d be tighter if it was short. Like the weight of it pulls it down, and it gleams in the sunlight. She’s almost jealous of how pretty he is sometimes, but then she remembers she gets to look at him as much as she wants, and for _free._

She also gets to see his eyes light up when she comes home, so that’s a plus.

“I don’t know,” he finally says. “I thought my life was going to be one thing, and then it wasn’t, and I’m not quite sure if I would want it to be that one thing. This is nice, too.”

“What was that one thing it was supposed to be?” Orihime asks, undeniably curious.

Sosuke shakes his head up at her. “Not today,” he says, and she lets it go. _Not today_ means maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, but it does mean he plans on telling her one day, and she can live with waiting for him. “This is nice, though. I might want to do just this.”

“But you said you were planning on leaving when you could,” she reminds him.

“Well,” he murmurs, “I don’t know. I’m just playing it by ear for now. If no one ever finds me, maybe I can have an actual life. But it just depends. How was work today?”

Orihime knows what it means when Sosuke changes the topic of the conversation, and she stops pushing him so insistently today. “Work was work, you know. It wasn’t really exciting or anything. Normal customers. I had to stay late to close. How was your day?”

“I had a five hour nap after breakfast, so it was very good,” Sosuke says with a smile.

She doesn’t envy him so much for sleeping all day because she knows what she gets like when she sleeps too much on her days off. Groggy and lazy and not wanting to do anything because her body never really wakes all the way up and all she wants to do is collapse back into bed. Besides, Sosuke is a cat. He might look like a person, but cats need to sleep something like sixteen hours a day. She read that on her phone when she was supposed to be working because the store was empty and she just doesn’t care that much.

“I’m glad you’re sleeping well.” She reaches for the remote and switches to Netflix so they can watch something possibly good before bed. It was already dark outside.

Sosuke sits up when she puts on a show they started last night because he wants to focus and she glances down at her phone when it vibrates. _Sora_ is the name on the screen and her heart climbs up into her throat; she’s been avoiding talking to him since Sosuke moved in because she can’t let anything slip, and Sora knows her better than anyone. He would always know if something was up the moment she made even one small mistake.

 

_It’s been a while since I sent you a message and I wanted to check on how you’re doing._

_I hope work hasn’t been too rough on you lately. How are you, Hime?_

 

Just by being himself, Sora makes her feel bad. She never keeps up with him as much as she should and he deserves it more than anyone else in her life. Everything he did for her led to her having a life today, something she’s eternally grateful for and never really expresses enough when she talks to him. He lives on the other side of the city in a nicer apartment because he has a more important job, and he sends her money to help her pay the bills because _what else would I really need it for when I’m comfortable here?_

Sora is her big brother and like a father to her, and she loves him more than anything.

 

_Everything is fine, work is annoying but I’m handling it!_

_I adopted a cat recently to have someone to come home to, I’ll send you a picture._

_I hope you’re office job is going well!_

 

She has plenty of pictures of Sosuke as a cat to send him and triple checks to make sure she has selected one of them to go along with her message. He might want to come over soon, so she’ll have to talk to Sosuke because Sora usually stays over at least one night when he comes to visit her. He wants to spend time with her and usually takes her out to lunch or dinner, and it’s late by the time they finish catching up with each other.

 

_I’m glad you finally went through with getting a pet for yourself._

_It’s a very pretty cat also._

 

“My brother says you’re pretty,” she says, halfway through typing out a message to him.

“That’s very kind of him.” Sosuke leans against her and she hides a smile behind her hair as she sends Sora another message. They’ll have to plan to get together soon.

She lets Sosuke watch three full episodes before they head to bed for the night. As per usual, he turns back into a cat, and she lets him sit in her lap while she brushes out his long, soft fur. This has become a nighttime ritual for both of them because she wants to keep him looking shiny and pretty, and because it relaxes her to take care of him. If he minds, he never shows it or verbalizes it. Instead, he purrs for her and kneads her thigh with his feet, careful not to use his claws on her. After she brushes the soft fur on his belly, he trots down to his pillow at the foot of the bed and curls up on it to sleep.

He usually falls asleep very quickly while it takes her a while to get there, and Orihime is about halfway to falling asleep herself when there is restless shifting at the foot of her bed. A soft, pained little yowl startles her awake all together and she sits up just in time to see Sosuke jerking awake, sprawled out on his pillow. She can see him shaking, too.

 _Oh._ He’s never had a nightmare before, but she worried he might just the same.

“It’s okay.” Orihime crawls to the end of her bed and picks him up, holding him in her arms and combing her fingers through his fur. “I’m right here, Sosuke. You’re safe.”

He mewls softly and presses his face into her neck, and she just lets him.

In the back of her mind, she knows how hard his life must have been on the streets. That people would have treated him cruelly for being a stray cat, that he was already running from people who wanted to hurt him. It makes her heart hurt to imagine him jerking awake alone in the apartment from a bad dream, and she hopes she hasn’t sleep through him waking up otherwise in her bedroom. She wants to comfort him if he needs it.

He’s still trembling slightly, so she takes him back to the top of the bed with her and just holds him. Whatever nightmare he had, it must have been a horrible one.

Orihime sets him down on her lap and turns on the lamp beside her bed, picking the brush back up. “Have I ever told you why I hate my job so much?” It’s a mundane and stupid question, but she wants to get Sosuke’s mind off of whatever it’s stuck on.

He looks up at her with his big green eyes and mewls softly, and she starts brushing his fur again. It’s so silky and shiny but he likes how soothing it feels, and she wants to calm him down before either of them tries to go to sleep. He needs it so bad.

“It’s the first job I’ve had that’s lasted this long but it’s not, like, because I really like it or because I’m good at it. I think I’m pretty terrible at it, all things considered.” Retail is like that, though, she thinks. You’re never really _good_ at it so much as you don’t bite a customer’s head off and try to keep up with the ever-changing pace of things. “They’d just built this apartment building a block away and they needed people so bad, so I got in really fast, and I stayed because of the money. But I actually really hate the place.”

Sosuke mewls like he’s telling her he knows, and she figures he must from the way she drags herself out of the door in the morning and comes back dead on her feet.

“It’s a convenience store, right, and the manager is super disorganized all the time. He’s terrible at this job but he sticks with it for the money, I think. We don’t really have people who can stock the store during the day, so I do that and run register. It’s hectic. We get a huge influx of businessmen right at the start of the day, and then it dies.” Orihime rubs her fingers under Sosuke’s little chin and he tilts his head back for her, his eyes little ecstatic slits of pleasure. He loves when she rubs under his chin.

She wants to take good care of him, she thinks. Because his life has been so bad and hers hasn’t been because someone was there to take care of her. Maybe she just wants to pay it forward, what Sora did for her, since he insists she owes him nothing for what he does.

“We have people start and quit all the time and my boss gets so mad if I don’t pick up the extra slack or agree to take extra shifts. He needs me during the week and is mad I have weekends off.” Orihime smiles when Sosuke meows up at her, rolling over onto his back. A clear sign that tells her it’s time to start brushing his belly again.

Instead, she sets the brush down and smoothes her hand down his middle, listening to him purr softly for her as she does. “It’s a busy store, too, and we make a lot of money, but I don’t know how we can without more people working there. It’s stressful and it makes me tired a lot because it asks so much of me. And some men are rude to me, y’know.”

Sosuke meows again, and there is a hard edge in his little kitty voice. She smiles.

“I like coming home to you here because it’s nice. It’s pleasant. You’re a good roommate and a good friend, and you make me happy.” Orihime picks him up and kisses him on his little kitty forehead. She takes his pillow and moves it up beside her, and Sosuke eagerly curls up on it, wrapping his tail around himself. “There. If you wake up again, I’ll know this time.”

She turns off the lamp and lies down on the bed once more, adjusting the cover over her, and stretches out her hand so she can keep petting Sosuke. He closes his eyes and purrs for her, and she can tell the moment when he falls asleep from how easy and slow his breaths go under her hand. She keeps petting him until it hurts up her arm, and then she lies it down on the pillow just beneath him. Just in case he needs her.

When she first moved here on her own, she had nightmares. She can never remember what any of them are about, but she had them. She woke up crying in the middle of the night and missed her brother so desperately though she never wanted to call him and wake him up and make it his problem to deal with. Rather, she tried to deal with it on her own even though it hurt. Even though it made her chest ache. She was never used to being alone and it cost her a lot to be alone, but Sora never made her feel bad about it.

Sosuke has been alone far longer than she has, and it makes her feel stupid and childish compared to his issues and everything he has gone through because of it.

“Cute kitty,” she murmurs, and Sosuke’s little ear twitches in answer.

For as long as Sosuke stays here, she’s going to do her best to take care of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> who's gonna be made if there's a sequel about ichigo having 2 cats


End file.
